2. What is Speaking?
• Speech is the vocalized form of human
communication
• Speech production takes places in real time
and it is linear, i.e. utterance by utterance.
• Planning is severly limited, therefore, it is the
hardest of all four skills.
4. ! Note that:
• In English, utterances tend to have a two-part
structure:
Topic + comment
5. Articulation
• It involves the use of the organs of speech to
produce sounds.
• Sounds are produced in a continuous stream,
some sounds merge with others. Handbag,
baked beans
• Continual changes in loudness, pitch direction,
tempo and pausing serve to organize the
sounds into meaninful words and utterances.
• Proficients speakers produce 15 phonemes a
second.
6. Self-monitoring & repair
• It is a process that happens concurrently with
the stages of conceptualization, formulation
and articulation.
• Self-monitoring may result in a slowing down,
pausing and backtracking or rephrasing of an
utterance.
9. ! Note that:
Being under pressure or tired will affect a
speaker’s performance
10. ! Note that:
• Speaking is like any other skill such as driving
or playing a musical instrument: the more you
practice, the more likely you are to be able to
chunk small units into larger ones.
11. Fluency
• Is fluency the ability to speak fast?
• It’s not only about speed, but pausing is
equally important.
• However, frequent pausing is a sure sign of a
struggling speaker.
• Natural sounding pauses| are those that occur
at the ontersection of clauses, | or after groups
of words that form a meaningful unit.|
12. Fluency
Another factor in the
perception of fluency is the
lenght of the run (number of
syllables between pauses)
Race-callers and auctioners
rather than constructing
from scratch,use
prefabricated chunks
Pause fillers: uh, um, er
Repeats
• Long runs
• Use of
prefabricated
chunks
• Production
strategies
13. Interaction and turn-taking
• Sometimes, a face-to-face dialogue is involved
in speaking.
• Turn-taking is negotiated because speakers
are familiar with the rules and skills of turn-
taking. Two rules are to be followed:
Long silences are to be avoided
Listen when other speakers are speaking
14. Discourse markers
• That reminds me. (I’m continuing with the same topic)
• By the way… (I’m indicating a topic change)
• Well, anyway.. (I’m returning to the topic)
• Like I say… (I’m repeating what I said before)
• Yes, but.. (I’m indicating a difference of opinion)
• Yes, no I know.. (I’m indicating agreement with a negative
idea)
• Uh-huh… (I’m listening)
16. Genre knowledge
By its purpose:
• Transactional: for the purpose of conveying or exchanging
specific information
• Interpersonal: For the purpose of maintaining social
relationships
By its interaction:
• Non-inteactive or interactive
By its planning:
• Planned or unplanned
